The target of this article is for players who've settled on what class(es) they would like to augment but may be unaware of a potential source of gem dust, or how rewarding it can be.

Upcycling, what is it?

• The process of leveling up a gem with the intent to loot collect it

How does that all work?

Let's start off by mentioning what has changed in the recent past

• Eclipse Patch Notes – August 22 2017
• The amount of Gem Dust obtained from deconstructing a leveled gem has been increased by up to 300% at Level 5, 700-1200% at level 10, up to 2000% at level 15, and up to 1000% at Level 20+
• Adventures Patch Notes – November 14 2017
• Effigy of Potent Opulence – … Level 3: reduces gem upgrade costs by 20% [Dust costs]
• Heroes Patch Notes – March 27 2018
• Wednesday … Non-Patrons receive: Dust costs for gem upgrades are reduced by 10%    Patrons receive: Dust costs for gem upgrades are reduced by 20%
• Crystal Combat Update Patch Notes – December 18 2018 [Go here]

Alright, potentially up to 40% savings when attempting to upcycle a gem, what else?

First we have to talk about this thing called the Gem Karma Bar, when you attempt to level a gem there's a progress bar that fills when you 'fail' to level a gem. Gem boosters can increase your odds of a level up but their ability to do so weakens as you rise in level.

Figure 1. Gem Karma Bar Table - Karma values and potential level up chance for Stellar Empowered gems. *Levels to 24 and 25 can fail with karma values of 87 and 72 respectively with a Ninthlife, I guess a mod adds those values (Karma tooltip/Enhanced UI) to the tooltip so that may be misleading.

Okay, I know my odds now, but what do I get?

Figure 2. Loot Gem Dust Table - Levels 13~15 stand out in potential profit.

Hmmm, I'm not sure. What would potential scenarios look like?

Figure 3. Case Scenario Table - between yellow and green would be great, between yellow and orange is more likely, while below orange is possible but unlikely.

TL;DR, Experience Upcycling Gems?

Figure 4. Samples Table - (25) Samples were exported to PTS, twice, for this data set. 0's were when a 'Double Level Up' occured. Click image to review the results in a new window.

In short, turn your 100 Clovers, 40 Horseshoes, and 20 Luckbugs into 20 Clovers, 24 Horseshoes, and 24 Luckbugs for a pretty solid chance at turning two not-so-stellar empowered gems into what is the equivalent of what two Dust Tomes would give, on a weekly basis.. even if you don't have patron.

A tip to keep in mind would be when you've failed close to filling the karma bar, see if a lower booster would fulfil the karma value requirement. Figure 4 does not reflect all the times (5) luckbugs used could have been (4) luckbugs and (1) horseshoe as an example.

For further context, I've opened 16,800 Shadow Tier Gemboxes (image, imgur.com) and the average dust is 64.4 per box [with patron], so an average stellar emp loot collected with bonuses active should be equivalent to 93 gem boxes [with patron].